what are you seeing?

Many years ago two salesmen weresent by a British shoe manufacturerto Africa to investigate and reportback on market potential.The first salesman reported back,"There is no potential here - nobodywears shoes."The second salesman reported back,"There is massive potential here -nobody wears shoes."This simple short story provides oneof the best examples of how a singlesituation may be viewed in twoquite different ways - negatively orpositively.We could explain this also in termsof seeing a situation's problems anddisadvantages, instead of itsopportunities and benefits.When telling this story its impact isincreased by using exactly the sameform of words (e.g., "nobody wearsshoes") in each salesman's report.This emphasises that two quitedifferent interpretations are madeof a single situation.